January 21, 2025 • 23 mins
This episode dives into the world of adjunct teaching, highlighting the challenges and rewards associated with this vital role in higher education. We discuss the realities of adjunct life, including financial instability, job insecurity, and the passion that drives many to pursue teaching despite these hurdles.
• Examining the transition to adjunct teaching
• Discussing the financial challenges faced by adjuncts
• Understanding the passion that motivates adjunct professors
• Reflection on personal teaching experiences and challenges
• Looking ahead to future episodes focused on adjunct support
Until next time, keep grading, keep growing, and keep making a difference in your students' lives.
Dr. Rutledge
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Grading Papers, the podcast dedicated to
supporting and empoweringadjunct professors.
I'm your host, dr Randi AnitaRutledge, and I am thrilled to
embark on this journey with you.
I'm so excited that you'rejoining me for the first episode
of the Grading Papers podcast.
(00:21):
Today we'll be diving into theworld of adjunct teaching its
challenges, its rewards and whyit matters.
So let's start by talking aboutan interesting statistic.
Did you know that over 73% ofthe instructional positions in
the United States highereducation space are now off the
(00:42):
tenure track?
That's right.
According to the new analysisof federal data by the American
Association of UniversityProfessors, most college courses
are taught by adjuncts.
Yet they're the ones thatstruggle the most and often go
unnoticed.
In this episode we're going totalk about the current state of
(01:06):
adjunct teaching, some commonchallenges faced by adjunct
faculty and why people choosethis path.
So adjunct professors, oftencalled contingent faculty, are
hired on a course-by-coursebasis.
That means they get a contract.
They sign that contract whenit's over it could be over.
They typically receive lowerpay, no benefits or a few
(01:32):
benefits, and they have less jobsecurity compared to their
tenured counterparts.
But despite these challenges,adjuncts play a crucial role in
the higher education space.
You know why?
Because they bring real worldexperience to the classroom.
They're typically industryexperts and they've been out
(01:56):
there in the trenches.
They know what's going on andthey know how to take what you
learn in your course the content, the research they know how to
practically apply it.
That's why they are some of thebest teachers, in my opinion.
When we look at educationoverall, it has totally shifted,
(02:19):
with adjunct professors nowmaking up over 70% of those who
teach in the university collegesetting.
They're the biggest staff now.
Right In the 1970s, almost 80%of the professors were tenured
and they were full time.
(02:40):
Now you flip it, it's almostthat amount of adjuncts who's
teaching full time.
So it makes you wonder aboutthe educational institutions and
we're not going to get intothat today.
But when you think about it allthe challenges that are faced
by adjuncts with with the topchallenge being the low
(03:01):
compensation you have to askyourself are universities making
a profit by hiring adjuncts atcheap compensation so that they
can bring in more funding?
And there's probably a lot ofreasons why that may happen.
But let's stick to thechallenges here.
(03:22):
The average compensation forgraduate school adjuncts is
around $2,800 to maybe $3,600per course.
So, when you think about it,that course could be six weeks,
eight weeks or 15 weeks andyou're doing a lot of work.
If you're a synchronous, you'redoing two hours of teaching
(03:45):
online or live on the groundthere at the University and you
could be doing that twice a week.
You could also be preparing forthat course with your slides,
because you're not getting thatassistance.
You're doing all that prep workyourself and you come in, you
teach the course, you fold inthe stories, you answer
(04:05):
questions, you work withstudents after the class and
then you field your emails andthen you answer any questions
students have and you do theassignments, the grading, the
quizzes, the midterm, the finaletc.
And post those grades on time.
But then you also may get sometasks given to you by the
(04:28):
university, some administrativetasks that you have to do, even
training etc.
But even though adjuncts aredoing that, they scramble to
earn money and they typicallywork at multiple institutions
and they still sometimes oftenlive below poverty and maybe
(04:49):
they might be able to get$50,000 a year, but most of the
times not.
They have a low job security.
The employment is normally justsemester to semester.
It is not guaranteed, they getno benefits, no health care, no
retirement plan and they getlimited to little support.
(05:14):
Oftentimes the professionaldevelopment happens on the
adjunct's own dime.
They learn on their own, justso they can be up and keep up
with what's going on trending inthe industry as well as
academia.
Again, they have heavy, heavyworkloads If they work nine to
(05:34):
five, heavy workloads acrossmultiple institutions If they
don't have a nine to five tomake ends meet.
I've read many articles whereadjuncts who had worked for
universities 10, 15, 20 yearsdied in poverty and didn't even
have enough for the funeral orany healthcare costs if they had
a healthcare event.
(05:56):
As an adjunct, you don't makeany decisions at the institution
.
You have little decision-makingauthority, right?
So then you might say, whywould a person choose this path
right?
Well, despite all of the issues, there are various reasons why
(06:16):
adjuncts choose this path right.
Sometimes it's an opportunityto gain teaching experience at
the college level.
Other times it's ability tomaintain industry connections
while teaching.
So you could have a nine tofive and maybe teaching would
help level up your brand, so tospeak.
And so then you would have theteaching and the nine to five
(06:39):
which could help you to gainmore opportunities.
But more often than not,adjuncts have a passion for
teaching.
They're a person that has thispassion for teaching and making
a difference in others' lives.
That's my reason.
I have a passion for teachingand making a difference.
The other thing I have apassion for teaching and making
(07:00):
a difference.
The other thing and even thoughit's a low amount, is the extra
income stream.
Some people use that to takevacations, do remodeling on
their homes, to save forretirement that they didn't save
or they had to use.
People do all kinds of thingsand they have all kinds of
reasons, but adjuncts are such acritical part in the university
(07:21):
ecosystem and it is my goal tobring that to the forefront, but
not only that talk about thechallenges and find ways to
assist them to overcome thesechallenges.
So everything is not all gloomand doom.
It can be a really rewardingcareer, and so why do people
(07:47):
select to go down this adjunctpath?
Well, I can talk about my reasonfor becoming an adjunct.
I was working at one of the bigfive consulting firms in the US
and just working years andyears doing what they required,
that's, selling millions andmillions of dollars of
management, professionalconsulting services and
(08:10):
delivering those services.
I have these skills I have.
I'm giving it all away and I Imight be getting the money for
it, but there's something elsethat I'm longing for.
I want to use it for myself.
I want to use it for some othergood right.
(08:30):
So I started seeking to teach asan adjunct for about a year,
and it took like a year or moreand I didn't hear anything, and
it's probably because I didn'thave any teaching experience.
But one day I got an email.
I got an email to come and do ateaching demonstration and I'm
just like oh my god, a teachingdemonstration.
(08:51):
And I heard you have to haveall this stuff together.
So before the teachingdemonstration, they asked me to
send them my teaching philosophy, all of my credits and degrees,
to make sure I had the 21credits in a subject area, and
they wanted to make sure thatthey validated my PhD.
(09:12):
So I did all that and then itcame time for teaching
demonstration.
Now I didn't know what toexpect, but I figured I would
use my consulting experienceright.
So I made this PowerPoint and,because one of the areas I
worked in is conflict managementand resolution, I did a
(09:32):
presentation on conflictmanagement and resolution in the
workplace.
So I put together thepresentation.
I copied the slides so I puttogether the presentation.
I copied the slide so I wouldhave some actual copies of the
slides just in case the slideprojector didn't work or the
video projector didn't work.
I also had some scenarios thatI had recorded so that they can
(09:54):
listen to them, and I had theselittle worksheets that they
would write down everything thatthey heard.
And this is after I taught themfor 15 minutes.
One of the things I learned as aconsultant is chunking, and
that's when you teach and trainyour audience something and then
you show them more about it,and then you give them an
(10:18):
opportunity to use what you justtaught them.
So I got there I was so nervousand I got there and I had
everything in my littlebriefcase.
And so I go in there and lo andbehold, it's like six people
sitting at a table and I'm justlike, oh my God, I thought I was
just going to be with theperson who asked me to come in
(10:40):
and there were six people, andso I had my laptop and I'm
hooking up my laptop and I'mbeing calm doing the self-talk
and then, all of a sudden, Ihooked up the laptop.
I have my PowerPointpresentation but the overhead
projector what it didn't work.
So not to worry, I had 10copies of the presentation.
(11:02):
So with there was only sixpeople there.
So okay, so far, so good.
I passed it out and then I heldthe recordings and I could I
could turn on the recordings onmy laptop, so that was good.
And then I had the sheets thatI was going to pass out
(11:23):
afterwards.
So I went through thepresentation and I taught them
this and that and everything,and so then afterwards I had one
of the slides saiddemonstration.
So when we got to that point Ipassed out the worksheet and I
gave them the instructions thatwe're going to listen to three
different recordings.
You're going to notice theconflict that's happening and I
(11:45):
want you, based on what you'velearned today in conflict
analysis and resolution, towrite down in the three spaces
that you have your thoughts andways that you would mitigate
maybe questions etc.
Thoughts and ways that youwould mitigate maybe questions,
et cetera.
So they listened to it and whilethey listened I kind of walked
around the room, showing that Icould move around the room and
(12:05):
all of this.
I'm just I don't even knowwhere it came from because I am
winging it right.
And so then I walked around andI came to the front after the
first recording and I could seethem looking up, which is a sign
of them thinking and writingthings down.
Ok, so then I played the secondrecording.
(12:26):
So, just so you know, eachrecording was at a certain level
of conflict, so the first waskind of minor.
The second recording was alittle little more intense, and
then the third recording wasextremely intense and based on
the 15 minutes of content I hadtaught them.
Those were things I gave them.
(12:47):
I showed them different typesof conflict and how you go about
looking and analyzing it insome ways that you might
remediate it.
So again, I walked around alittle bit, and then the third
one.
I walked around, and so thenafter that they put their
pencils down and I felt a littlerelaxed then.
Right, I felt more relaxed thenbecause I had walked around and
(13:11):
I felt like I had some commandover the room.
So then I asked the firstquestion about the first
recording, and they all couldnot wait to talk about it and I
said this is good, right, andthen we went on and they had the
great answers.
Not only did they have answersthat I had given them which I
(13:34):
expected because these wereadult learners, that they had
their own experience, that theycould fold in and give more to
the dialogue.
So then we went on to thesecond and then the third, and
everything just went so smoothly.
And then after that I did thewrap up and I left them with
some job aids so that they wouldhave this one sheet, this one
(13:57):
pager, to help them remembersome of the things that they had
learned.
And afterward I felt relievedbecause I had finally got
through my first.
And do you know, that's my firstand only teaching demonstration
on face-to-face.
The other ones have been online, which is kind of easier to do,
but that was my first and onlyone, and I was biting my nails.
(14:21):
Anyway, almost like a PhDdefense, when you're doing your
dissertation defense.
They asked me to go out of theroom, which that, to me, was
unexpected.
I figured I'd leave and thenthey'd send me an email and blah
, blah, blah, but that didn'thappen.
I went out of the room and thenin about 10 minutes someone
came out to get me, and then itwas the person who had asked me
(14:44):
to come and do the teachingdemonstration, and then all five
of the other people left and Ithought that was odd.
So then she asked me to have aseat and she sat down and she
was like, well, welcome to.
And then she said theuniversity.
And I was just like you know, Iwas ecstatic.
And then she talked to me aboutwhen I would be coming on.
(15:08):
I came on in October of 2013.
And the reason why I was comingon in October which she told me
afterwards is because she wasgoing on a maternity leave, and
so you know, know, it's veryinteresting for a year and a
half almost, I had been applyingand applying, but I didn't even
make any headway until someonehad something going on with them
(15:32):
and I guess, based on those whohad applied, if I met the
teaching demonstration, I wouldbe able to come on in.
I was so thankful to get theopportunity and so thankful to
go through this experiencebecause it enabled me, when I
was teaching industry adjunctshow to become adjunct professors
.
It gave me some experience thatI could talk to them about, as
(15:55):
it related to face-to-faceteaching demonstration as well
as online.
So I'm going to put a pin rightthere that was me trying to be
an adjunct professor, orapplying and then going through
the experience of them with theteaching demonstration.
So let me fast forward.
So let me just say I didn't getany training.
(16:17):
All I know is I got thecontract.
It said what day I was supposedto start.
It gave me the IT People, sentme my user ID and password, log
on to I think we were usingBlackboard and look at the
course and no, let me put a pinright there, I did not have a
(16:39):
course.
I had to create a course.
So that's a whole nother can ofworms Creating a course and
trying to figure out what's thebest practices, what do you use,
how many modules where you getyour book from, the tests, the
quizzes and everything.
But I did know one thing fromworking as a consultant.
I asked myself what did I wantmy students to learn?
(17:03):
And, based on what I wantedthem to learn, I backed into
teaching the course and Ialigned what I wanted them to
learn, those objectives, withthe actual reading, the quizzes,
the assignments, the discussion, etc.
So in the very beginning Icrafted my own style of creating
(17:26):
a course that would give me theoutcome because, again, I'm an
industry expert.
Everything I do is to have anoutcome and the number one thing
in my teaching philosophy isthat I help students apply what
they learn.
So that whole teachingphilosophy is a whole nother
thing.
You know talking about that,but that's one of the values
(17:47):
that I have.
So, ok, now let me talk to youabout the first day in class,
right, I didn't know what theclassroom was going to look like
.
I didn't know what it was setup, as no one greeted me.
I didn't know anything.
I just went in there with mybriefcase, with the book, but I
had sense enough to create thecourse online and use the online
(18:12):
course even for theface-to-face students, so that I
could have them log online forassignments and quizzes, et
cetera.
So that was a good thing.
When I got in there, there wereall these adults and I was
teaching them how to useMicrosoft Word, excel, et cetera
(18:33):
.
So it was, yeah, microsoft Word, microsoft Excel and Microsoft
PowerPoint, because this was forbusiness and it was in the
business school.
It was one of the firstundergraduate courses that I
taught.
So you just don't know what youjust don't know.
So I got to teaching them, youknow, and there was someone who
(18:53):
hollered out in the back wecan't hear you in the back and
I'm just like, oh my God Right,someone hollered out in the back
, we can't hear you in the back.
And I'm just like, oh my GodRight, I'm teaching them, I'm at
the board, I'm trying to followmy lesson plan and inside of my
head I was just just relaxed.
And the other thing is I forgotto give them breaks.
And then students just startgetting up and walking out of
(19:14):
the class and I'm just like nowwhat is happening here?
I didn't have any idea what wasgoing on, and so, when they
went out to break, I wentoutside in my car and I thought
to myself you know what?
You're an adjunct, but you'realso Dr Randy Anita Rutledge and
(19:34):
you've been teaching adults,ceos, cfos, chief operating
officers for the longest.
And these are just students.
They're just people.
They're paying for theireducation and you want them to
learn something that they canapply.
Right.
When they came back from thebreak, I had my lesson planned,
(19:56):
but I flipped it.
I asked them, I said how manyof you have nine to five jobs?
Everybody raised their hand.
I need you to write down on apiece of paper.
Don't put your name on it, justwrite down on a piece of paper.
What are the things that youare challenged with when it
comes to Microsoft Word,microsoft Excel and Microsoft
(20:18):
PowerPoint.
And I want you to put it on thepaper and I want you to fold it
up and pass it all the way up.
So it was 30 students, mind you.
I had five students for a rowand six rows.
They all passed them up.
I put them in this box and Isaid, okay, we have these 12
(20:38):
weeks that we're going to learnWord, excel and PowerPoint.
Right, and every time I comeinto the class, we're going to
pull something, several of thesepapers out of this bowl, and
I'm going to teach you, based onmy lesson plan, but I'm going
to teach you what you would liketo learn, and so I'll fold in
(21:01):
the lesson plan through thechallenges that you're having.
And they clapped.
I was like I felt so good then,you know, and so I went 15
minutes.
I stopped and did a pulse check.
Are you getting this?
What do you not understand?
What do I need to go over?
(21:22):
Then I said, okay, every personin your row.
Is there anyone in the row thatunderstands what I did?
Yes, okay, you got five minutes.
Each person in the row thatunderstands.
I want you to huddle with thestudents in your row and help
them to understand, and thenwe're going to pick up for the
next lesson.
(21:42):
Are you with me?
And they were like, yeah, andit was almost like I had just
jumped into this whole otherrealm.
That was the actualization thatI was looking for.
I was looking for a way to giveback.
I was looking for a way to feelthe knowledge that I had and to
(22:03):
feel the impact of thatknowledge, and I would venture
to say that a lot of theindividuals that work in the
adjunct space they may bewanting to or had ideas of
feeling the same thing.
Right as we wrap up thisepisode of the adjunct life, let
(22:24):
me give you a taste of what'scoming up.
On grading papers, we're goingto talk about time management
strategies and the overworkedadjunct.
We'll look at ways to getprofessional development on a
budget, even free, and I'll talkto you about the art of
teaching excellence as anadjunct and what I just
(22:46):
explained to you, by pivotingand realizing that this
education is a partnership.
I was partnering withindividuals who worked nine to
five, who were trying to excelwhere they were or get other
positions.
They had all kinds of reasonshaving children, having
(23:08):
grandchildren, wanting to buy ahome, wanting to buy a new car.
They had all kinds of reasonswhy they believe new education
would accentuate and increasetheir means, increase their
finances, their economics.
I wanted to be part of that andI wanted to help them be able
(23:28):
to do the things that theystruggled with.
Thank you for joining us forthis episode of Grading Papers
and until next time, keepgrading, keep growing and keep
making a difference in yourstudents' lives.
Welcome to Grading Papers, the podcast dedicated to
supporting and empoweringadjunct professors.
I'm your host, dr Randi AnitaRutledge, and I am thrilled to
embark on this journey with you.
I'm so excited that you'rejoining me for the first episode
of the Grading Papers podcast.
(00:21):
Today we'll be diving into theworld of adjunct teaching its
challenges, its rewards and whyit matters.
So let's start by talking aboutan interesting statistic.
Did you know that over 73% ofthe instructional positions in
the United States highereducation space are now off the
(00:42):
tenure track?
That's right.
According to the new analysisof federal data by the American
Association of UniversityProfessors, most college courses
are taught by adjuncts.
Yet they're the ones thatstruggle the most and often go
unnoticed.
In this episode we're going totalk about the current state of
(01:06):
adjunct teaching, some commonchallenges faced by adjunct
faculty and why people choosethis path.
So adjunct professors, oftencalled contingent faculty, are
hired on a course-by-coursebasis.
That means they get a contract.
They sign that contract whenit's over it could be over.
They typically receive lowerpay, no benefits or a few
(01:32):
benefits, and they have less jobsecurity compared to their
tenured counterparts.
But despite these challenges,adjuncts play a crucial role in
the higher education space.
You know why?
Because they bring real worldexperience to the classroom.
They're typically industryexperts and they've been out
(01:56):
there in the trenches.
They know what's going on andthey know how to take what you
learn in your course the content, the research they know how to
practically apply it.
That's why they are some of thebest teachers, in my opinion.
When we look at educationoverall, it has totally shifted,
(02:19):
with adjunct professors nowmaking up over 70% of those who
teach in the university collegesetting.
They're the biggest staff now.
Right In the 1970s, almost 80%of the professors were tenured
and they were full time.
(02:40):
Now you flip it, it's almostthat amount of adjuncts who's
teaching full time.
So it makes you wonder aboutthe educational institutions and
we're not going to get intothat today.
But when you think about it allthe challenges that are faced
by adjuncts with with the topchallenge being the low
(03:01):
compensation you have to askyourself are universities making
a profit by hiring adjuncts atcheap compensation so that they
can bring in more funding?
And there's probably a lot ofreasons why that may happen.
But let's stick to thechallenges here.
(03:22):
The average compensation forgraduate school adjuncts is
around $2,800 to maybe $3,600per course.
So, when you think about it,that course could be six weeks,
eight weeks or 15 weeks andyou're doing a lot of work.
If you're a synchronous, you'redoing two hours of teaching
(03:45):
online or live on the groundthere at the University and you
could be doing that twice a week.
You could also be preparing forthat course with your slides,
because you're not getting thatassistance.
You're doing all that prep workyourself and you come in, you
teach the course, you fold inthe stories, you answer
(04:05):
questions, you work withstudents after the class and
then you field your emails andthen you answer any questions
students have and you do theassignments, the grading, the
quizzes, the midterm, the finaletc.
And post those grades on time.
But then you also may get sometasks given to you by the
(04:28):
university, some administrativetasks that you have to do, even
training etc.
But even though adjuncts aredoing that, they scramble to
earn money and they typicallywork at multiple institutions
and they still sometimes oftenlive below poverty and maybe
(04:49):
they might be able to get$50,000 a year, but most of the
times not.
They have a low job security.
The employment is normally justsemester to semester.
It is not guaranteed, they getno benefits, no health care, no
retirement plan and they getlimited to little support.
(05:14):
Oftentimes the professionaldevelopment happens on the
adjunct's own dime.
They learn on their own, justso they can be up and keep up
with what's going on trending inthe industry as well as
academia.
Again, they have heavy, heavyworkloads If they work nine to
(05:34):
five, heavy workloads acrossmultiple institutions If they
don't have a nine to five tomake ends meet.
I've read many articles whereadjuncts who had worked for
universities 10, 15, 20 yearsdied in poverty and didn't even
have enough for the funeral orany healthcare costs if they had
a healthcare event.
(05:56):
As an adjunct, you don't makeany decisions at the institution
.
You have little decision-makingauthority, right?
So then you might say, whywould a person choose this path
right?
Well, despite all of the issues, there are various reasons why
(06:16):
adjuncts choose this path right.
Sometimes it's an opportunityto gain teaching experience at
the college level.
Other times it's ability tomaintain industry connections
while teaching.
So you could have a nine tofive and maybe teaching would
help level up your brand, so tospeak.
And so then you would have theteaching and the nine to five
(06:39):
which could help you to gainmore opportunities.
But more often than not,adjuncts have a passion for
teaching.
They're a person that has thispassion for teaching and making
a difference in others' lives.
That's my reason.
I have a passion for teachingand making a difference.
The other thing I have apassion for teaching and making
(07:00):
a difference.
The other thing and even thoughit's a low amount, is the extra
income stream.
Some people use that to takevacations, do remodeling on
their homes, to save forretirement that they didn't save
or they had to use.
People do all kinds of thingsand they have all kinds of
reasons, but adjuncts are such acritical part in the university
(07:21):
ecosystem and it is my goal tobring that to the forefront, but
not only that talk about thechallenges and find ways to
assist them to overcome thesechallenges.
So everything is not all gloomand doom.
It can be a really rewardingcareer, and so why do people
(07:47):
select to go down this adjunctpath?
Well, I can talk about my reasonfor becoming an adjunct.
I was working at one of the bigfive consulting firms in the US
and just working years andyears doing what they required,
that's, selling millions andmillions of dollars of
management, professionalconsulting services and
(08:10):
delivering those services.
I have these skills I have.
I'm giving it all away and I Imight be getting the money for
it, but there's something elsethat I'm longing for.
I want to use it for myself.
I want to use it for some othergood right.
(08:30):
So I started seeking to teach asan adjunct for about a year,
and it took like a year or moreand I didn't hear anything, and
it's probably because I didn'thave any teaching experience.
But one day I got an email.
I got an email to come and do ateaching demonstration and I'm
just like oh my god, a teachingdemonstration.
(08:51):
And I heard you have to haveall this stuff together.
So before the teachingdemonstration, they asked me to
send them my teaching philosophy, all of my credits and degrees,
to make sure I had the 21credits in a subject area, and
they wanted to make sure thatthey validated my PhD.
(09:12):
So I did all that and then itcame time for teaching
demonstration.
Now I didn't know what toexpect, but I figured I would
use my consulting experienceright.
So I made this PowerPoint and,because one of the areas I
worked in is conflict managementand resolution, I did a
(09:32):
presentation on conflictmanagement and resolution in the
workplace.
So I put together thepresentation.
I copied the slides so I puttogether the presentation.
I copied the slide so I wouldhave some actual copies of the
slides just in case the slideprojector didn't work or the
video projector didn't work.
I also had some scenarios thatI had recorded so that they can
(09:54):
listen to them, and I had theselittle worksheets that they
would write down everything thatthey heard.
And this is after I taught themfor 15 minutes.
One of the things I learned as aconsultant is chunking, and
that's when you teach and trainyour audience something and then
you show them more about it,and then you give them an
(10:18):
opportunity to use what you justtaught them.
So I got there I was so nervousand I got there and I had
everything in my littlebriefcase.
And so I go in there and lo andbehold, it's like six people
sitting at a table and I'm justlike, oh my God, I thought I was
just going to be with theperson who asked me to come in
(10:40):
and there were six people, andso I had my laptop and I'm
hooking up my laptop and I'mbeing calm doing the self-talk
and then, all of a sudden, Ihooked up the laptop.
I have my PowerPointpresentation but the overhead
projector what it didn't work.
So not to worry, I had 10copies of the presentation.
(11:02):
So with there was only sixpeople there.
So okay, so far, so good.
I passed it out and then I heldthe recordings and I could I
could turn on the recordings onmy laptop, so that was good.
And then I had the sheets thatI was going to pass out
(11:23):
afterwards.
So I went through thepresentation and I taught them
this and that and everything,and so then afterwards I had one
of the slides saiddemonstration.
So when we got to that point Ipassed out the worksheet and I
gave them the instructions thatwe're going to listen to three
different recordings.
You're going to notice theconflict that's happening and I
(11:45):
want you, based on what you'velearned today in conflict
analysis and resolution, towrite down in the three spaces
that you have your thoughts andways that you would mitigate
maybe questions etc.
Thoughts and ways that youwould mitigate maybe questions,
et cetera.
So they listened to it and whilethey listened I kind of walked
around the room, showing that Icould move around the room and
(12:05):
all of this.
I'm just I don't even knowwhere it came from because I am
winging it right.
And so then I walked around andI came to the front after the
first recording and I could seethem looking up, which is a sign
of them thinking and writingthings down.
Ok, so then I played the secondrecording.
(12:26):
So, just so you know, eachrecording was at a certain level
of conflict, so the first waskind of minor.
The second recording was alittle little more intense, and
then the third recording wasextremely intense and based on
the 15 minutes of content I hadtaught them.
Those were things I gave them.
(12:47):
I showed them different typesof conflict and how you go about
looking and analyzing it insome ways that you might
remediate it.
So again, I walked around alittle bit, and then the third
one.
I walked around, and so thenafter that they put their
pencils down and I felt a littlerelaxed then.
Right, I felt more relaxed thenbecause I had walked around and
(13:11):
I felt like I had some commandover the room.
So then I asked the firstquestion about the first
recording, and they all couldnot wait to talk about it and I
said this is good, right, andthen we went on and they had the
great answers.
Not only did they have answersthat I had given them which I
(13:34):
expected because these wereadult learners, that they had
their own experience, that theycould fold in and give more to
the dialogue.
So then we went on to thesecond and then the third, and
everything just went so smoothly.
And then after that I did thewrap up and I left them with
some job aids so that they wouldhave this one sheet, this one
(13:57):
pager, to help them remembersome of the things that they had
learned.
And afterward I felt relievedbecause I had finally got
through my first.
And do you know, that's my firstand only teaching demonstration
on face-to-face.
The other ones have been online, which is kind of easier to do,
but that was my first and onlyone, and I was biting my nails.
(14:21):
Anyway, almost like a PhDdefense, when you're doing your
dissertation defense.
They asked me to go out of theroom, which that, to me, was
unexpected.
I figured I'd leave and thenthey'd send me an email and blah
, blah, blah, but that didn'thappen.
I went out of the room and thenin about 10 minutes someone
came out to get me, and then itwas the person who had asked me
(14:44):
to come and do the teachingdemonstration, and then all five
of the other people left and Ithought that was odd.
So then she asked me to have aseat and she sat down and she
was like, well, welcome to.
And then she said theuniversity.
And I was just like you know, Iwas ecstatic.
And then she talked to me aboutwhen I would be coming on.
(15:08):
I came on in October of 2013.
And the reason why I was comingon in October which she told me
afterwards is because she wasgoing on a maternity leave, and
so you know, know, it's veryinteresting for a year and a
half almost, I had been applyingand applying, but I didn't even
make any headway until someonehad something going on with them
(15:32):
and I guess, based on those whohad applied, if I met the
teaching demonstration, I wouldbe able to come on in.
I was so thankful to get theopportunity and so thankful to
go through this experiencebecause it enabled me, when I
was teaching industry adjunctshow to become adjunct professors
.
It gave me some experience thatI could talk to them about, as
(15:55):
it related to face-to-faceteaching demonstration as well
as online.
So I'm going to put a pin rightthere that was me trying to be
an adjunct professor, orapplying and then going through
the experience of them with theteaching demonstration.
So let me fast forward.
So let me just say I didn't getany training.
(16:17):
All I know is I got thecontract.
It said what day I was supposedto start.
It gave me the IT People, sentme my user ID and password, log
on to I think we were usingBlackboard and look at the
course and no, let me put a pinright there, I did not have a
(16:39):
course.
I had to create a course.
So that's a whole nother can ofworms Creating a course and
trying to figure out what's thebest practices, what do you use,
how many modules where you getyour book from, the tests, the
quizzes and everything.
But I did know one thing fromworking as a consultant.
I asked myself what did I wantmy students to learn?
(17:03):
And, based on what I wantedthem to learn, I backed into
teaching the course and Ialigned what I wanted them to
learn, those objectives, withthe actual reading, the quizzes,
the assignments, the discussion, etc.
So in the very beginning Icrafted my own style of creating
(17:26):
a course that would give me theoutcome because, again, I'm an
industry expert.
Everything I do is to have anoutcome and the number one thing
in my teaching philosophy isthat I help students apply what
they learn.
So that whole teachingphilosophy is a whole nother
thing.
You know talking about that,but that's one of the values
(17:47):
that I have.
So, ok, now let me talk to youabout the first day in class,
right, I didn't know what theclassroom was going to look like
.
I didn't know what it was setup, as no one greeted me.
I didn't know anything.
I just went in there with mybriefcase, with the book, but I
had sense enough to create thecourse online and use the online
(18:12):
course even for theface-to-face students, so that I
could have them log online forassignments and quizzes, et
cetera.
So that was a good thing.
When I got in there, there wereall these adults and I was
teaching them how to useMicrosoft Word, excel, et cetera
(18:33):
.
So it was, yeah, microsoft Word, microsoft Excel and Microsoft
PowerPoint, because this was forbusiness and it was in the
business school.
It was one of the firstundergraduate courses that I
taught.
So you just don't know what youjust don't know.
So I got to teaching them, youknow, and there was someone who
(18:53):
hollered out in the back wecan't hear you in the back and
I'm just like, oh my God Right,someone hollered out in the back
, we can't hear you in the back.
And I'm just like, oh my GodRight, I'm teaching them, I'm at
the board, I'm trying to followmy lesson plan and inside of my
head I was just just relaxed.
And the other thing is I forgotto give them breaks.
And then students just startgetting up and walking out of
(19:14):
the class and I'm just like nowwhat is happening here?
I didn't have any idea what wasgoing on, and so, when they
went out to break, I wentoutside in my car and I thought
to myself you know what?
You're an adjunct, but you'realso Dr Randy Anita Rutledge and
(19:34):
you've been teaching adults,ceos, cfos, chief operating
officers for the longest.
And these are just students.
They're just people.
They're paying for theireducation and you want them to
learn something that they canapply.
Right.
When they came back from thebreak, I had my lesson planned,
(19:56):
but I flipped it.
I asked them, I said how manyof you have nine to five jobs?
Everybody raised their hand.
I need you to write down on apiece of paper.
Don't put your name on it, justwrite down on a piece of paper.
What are the things that youare challenged with when it
comes to Microsoft Word,microsoft Excel and Microsoft
(20:18):
PowerPoint.
And I want you to put it on thepaper and I want you to fold it
up and pass it all the way up.
So it was 30 students, mind you.
I had five students for a rowand six rows.
They all passed them up.
I put them in this box and Isaid, okay, we have these 12
(20:38):
weeks that we're going to learnWord, excel and PowerPoint.
Right, and every time I comeinto the class, we're going to
pull something, several of thesepapers out of this bowl, and
I'm going to teach you, based onmy lesson plan, but I'm going
to teach you what you would liketo learn, and so I'll fold in
(21:01):
the lesson plan through thechallenges that you're having.
And they clapped.
I was like I felt so good then,you know, and so I went 15
minutes.
I stopped and did a pulse check.
Are you getting this?
What do you not understand?
What do I need to go over?
(21:22):
Then I said, okay, every personin your row.
Is there anyone in the row thatunderstands what I did?
Yes, okay, you got five minutes.
Each person in the row thatunderstands.
I want you to huddle with thestudents in your row and help
them to understand, and thenwe're going to pick up for the
next lesson.
(21:42):
Are you with me?
And they were like, yeah, andit was almost like I had just
jumped into this whole otherrealm.
That was the actualization thatI was looking for.
I was looking for a way to giveback.
I was looking for a way to feelthe knowledge that I had and to
(22:03):
feel the impact of thatknowledge, and I would venture
to say that a lot of theindividuals that work in the
adjunct space they may bewanting to or had ideas of
feeling the same thing.
Right as we wrap up thisepisode of the adjunct life, let
(22:24):
me give you a taste of what'scoming up.
On grading papers, we're goingto talk about time management
strategies and the overworkedadjunct.
We'll look at ways to getprofessional development on a
budget, even free, and I'll talkto you about the art of
teaching excellence as anadjunct and what I just
(22:46):
explained to you, by pivotingand realizing that this
education is a partnership.
I was partnering withindividuals who worked nine to
five, who were trying to excelwhere they were or get other
positions.
They had all kinds of reasonshaving children, having
(23:08):
grandchildren, wanting to buy ahome, wanting to buy a new car.
They had all kinds of reasonswhy they believe new education
would accentuate and increasetheir means, increase their
finances, their economics.
I wanted to be part of that andI wanted to help them be able
(23:28):
to do the things that theystruggled with.
Thank you for joining us forthis episode of Grading Papers
and until next time, keepgrading, keep growing and keep
making a difference in yourstudents' lives.
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